Garden for Birds 2

Oh my goodness, I finished a quilt!  It feels like a very long time since I had a finished quilt to share with you, and I've been missing the feeling that comes with finishing something.

Anyway, a bit of history.  This quilt originally started out as a quick design sketch (yep, I am really great at drawing...).

And then I made the first version, for a friend's baby, in kind of similar colours to the original design (although a number of things changed).

This latest version uses a completely different colour palette (inspired by this quilt which my friend Anne has been working on) and the design has changed yet again.  I've been working slowly on this quilt for a while (you can see my WIP post from early June here) but this weekend I really needed to get it finished.

 

I'm teaching this quilt over a series of classes at Nancy's Embroidery, so I simplified some of the elements to make it more suitable for beginners.  I also added a greater variety of blocks to cover a variety of different skills.

 

I really had fun with this version - for example, those gingko leaves are reverse appliqué.  I cut the light part out of the fabric, put the green fabric behind, and machine blanket stitched it in place.  The two tone binding was a last minute choice - I really wanted quite a plain binding to calm the quilt down slightly, but I still wanted enough contrast so you could actually see the binding.  The light/dark split was the obvious solution (the light grey looks solid, but is actually the grey crosshatch from Architextures).

One thing that I was not very happy with in the last version of this quilt was the quilting.  Ultimately I didn't feel like it improved the quilt, and kind of only added to the chaos.  For this version, I really wanted to avoid that and went with a simple crosshatch pattern for the quilting.  I love how a crosshatch adds instant softness to a quilt, and in this case it totally does not distract from the piecing and appliqué.

I found a couple of garden themed fabrics in my stash that were just perfect for the backing.  I especially love that green fabric - I wish I'd bought more (and may have to hunt more out!).

So this quilt will be hanging out at Nancy's for the next couple of weeks, before I take it off to be entered in the Capital Quilters' exhibition.  Wellingtonians, if you'd like to make your own version, I believe there are still places in the class and you can get all the details on the Nancy's website.  I think it will be a fairly challenging class for a beginner, but if you come ready and keen to learn, you will learn a lot.

Quilt Stats
Pattern: my Garden for Birds pattern
Finished Size: approx 36" by 42"

Fabric: many

Backing: Petunia in Pink from Little Azalea by Dena Fishbein, Field Day in Green by Josephine Kimberling for Blend Fabrics

Binding: Kona cotton in Steel, Architextures grey crosshatch

Pieced and quilted by: me

I'll be linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

WIP Wednesday

I'm still working on my Garden for Birds Quilt.  It has changed a bit from the original plan - that's the fun thing about a quilt like this.  Here's where I'm up to at the moment.

I'm hoping to get this quilt top finished up this week.  Then I'll have to think about the quilting.  On one hand I think something super simple since there's already so much going on would be good - on the other hand I think different FMQ designs to complement the different blocks could be cool too.  I guess we'll see what kind of mood I'm in when I come to quilt this one!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway - it's open until Friday.

WIP Wednesday

A good friend of mine is expecting her first child soon - a much longed for baby girl.  I'm so pleased for her (and also for myself, because I've been hanging out to make a baby girl quilt all year) and to celebrate I designed this completely over the top quilt.

I hope my sketch is encouraging to anyone else who is thinking about designing their own quilts - you can see that my drawing skills are pretty minimal (yes, those are birds and flowers) but that hasn't stopped me and it shouldn't stop you!

I really wanted to create a quilt that was fun and a little bit crazy, and would allow me to use lots of different colours and fabrics.  This quilt uses a variety of different techniques, including piecing and appliqué, but the intention is that it's simple enough for even a fairly novice quilter to make.

I spent the weekend at my first ever quilting retreat.  It was awesome - I got a bunch done and it was lovely to hang out with lots of quilting obsessed people like me.  I took the opportunity to make a start on this baby quilt.  I'm pretty happy with where it's going so far and can't wait to work on it some more this weekend.  I have to give a special shout out to my friend Helen (aka the appliqué queen) - she was on the retreat too and she did a beautiful job of the machine blanket stitch on the central appliqué block - thanks Helen!

Have you been to a quilting retreat before?  I'd definitely do it again - my only complaint was that it was too short!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced: